Students learn about animal safety from the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH).

LAMBERTON — Elementary students from Jefferson Elementary and St. Paul’s Lutheran School spent a day learning about farm and electrical safety, composting and plant growth, pollinators, and the food supply at the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center near Lamberton recently.

Nearly 550 3rd and 4th grade students from 11 different schools participated in University of Minnesota Extension’s annual Fall Elementary Field Day on September 21-23. The field day included hands-on learning opportunities like making foam pizzas to learn about food supply, pulling worms for classroom composting kits, and assembling soybean “plant pals”.

The field day also engaged FFA officers from Red Rock Central, Windom, and Mountain Lake high schools. The FFA students helped lead the farm safety lessons with representatives from Cottonwood County Farm Bureau and Redwood County Farm Bureau.

Other agencies/organizations that presented were the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH), Cottonwood County Soil & Water Conservation District, Cottonwood County USDA-Farm Service Agency, South Central Electric, East River Electric, and Cottonwood County 4-H.

After not holding the program in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns, safety adaptations were made to the 2021 program. Two educational sessions were added to keep each class of students isolated from classes from other schools instead of combining groups for one longer presentation. More space was allowed between the presenters and the speakers. Students also wore masks during the educational sessions.

Participating schools included: Westbrook-Walnut Grove, Red Rock Central, Windom, Mt. Lake Public, Jefferson Elementary (New Ulm), Springfield, St. John’s Lutheran (Redwood Falls), St. Raphael’s (Springfield), Samuel Lutheran (Marshall), Tracy, and St. Paul’s Lutheran (New Ulm).